A slight public service blog...
Over the last ten weeks as part of my duties as a carer, I
have been taking my father in law to more doctor’s appointments than I had
planned. And every appointment just about has resulted in more medication for
him. My father in law who is 83 now has
type 2 diabetes and CHF (congested heart failure). The diabetes was discovered
through a routine blood test and the CHF was because I happened to read about
side effects of one of the many medications he takes and asked for a review of
the medication. The doctor listened to the symptoms, listened to his chest and
had a look at his ankles. My father in law had oedema in his ankles. I knew immediately it was different from the oedema I have suffer from in my left arm as the doctor said that it would not be helped by bandaging. Instead he has to take water tablets to remove the excess fluids. At the moment the treatment, including a radical overhaul of
his diet (I put my foot done and banned the massive stores of sweets and
biscuits that he kept in his room), appears to be working but he will have both
conditions for the rest of his life. If this blog serves as a wake up call for
one person, then it will have done its job.
Type 2 diabetes and CHF are related. They both are a result
of too much visceral fat. Visceral fat is the unseen fat than hangs off the
internal organs. With CHF, basically the heart gets weakened and cannot pump as
efficiently because it trying to beat against a wall of fat. Diabetic sufferers have so much fat in their
liver and pancreas that the body can no longer process sugar properly. Blood
sugar levels and a whole host of other nasty conditions can develop. The one
which truly frightened my father in law was the possibility of amputation. With
high blood sugar and poor circulation to the feet, it is possible to get
infections that don’t heal. It is why diabetics should get their toe nails
professionally cut. Right now, my father in law is hoping that the change of
diet will help decrease the visceral fat and bring everything under control. A
short walk has him struggling for breath and exercise, so even moderate
exercise is out.
We are doing this
gently (ie banning of processed food, increased fresh fruit and veg and severe
limitation of refined sugar and trans fats) as I don’t think he would survive
the extreme programme advocated by Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle
University. Professor Taylor’s work has shown in about a third of the cases who
have gone on his regime, the type 2 diabetes has reversed and the pancreas has
started functioning normally again. This has huge implications as type 2
diabetes was never thought to be reversible. Taylor has also shown that the regime of 800
calories a day for 8 weeks combined with moderate exercise also drains the
liver of fat and again this has huge implications for the treatment of non
alcoholic fatty liver disease. Until he
properly researched it, it was thought that once you suffered from a fatty
liver, you were always going to suffer from one. Even the people who did not
fully respond had their liver function improved. Michael Moseley has written a
book The Blood Sugar Diet which details some of Professor Taylor’s findings and
makes them more accessible to the ordinary person.
One of the best ways to discover if you are potentially
suffering from too much visceral fat is to measure your waist. Your waist
measurement should be no more than half your height. If it is, you might want
to take steps to combat it and you certainly consider getting your blood sugar
tested. If you have a persistent cough and swollen ankles as well as a waist
which is greater than half your height, definitely go and see your doctor as
you could have CHF. But the good news is there are simple things you can do
about it and now thanks in part to the efforts by people like Roy Taylor, there are ways to fight back.
When not attending doctor’s appointments with her father in
law, Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances for
Harlequin Historical. She is currently revising her latest Viking set romance.
You can learn more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk
